Generalist Managers

A principle of good management practice is to gather all available information before proceeding to determine a course of action.  The weight of the action determines how carefully information must be gathered and analyzed.  A person standing in front of the ice cream counter at Baskins and Robbins may quickly review his personal health profile, (allergies, dietary restrictions) check for freezer burn on the ice cream, observe the sanitary conditions of the store and its employees, and guided by this information, finally follow the whimsy of taste.

Weightier decisions follow the same process of gathering and analyzing information about interactions among systems.  Corporate and government strategic plans collect available information and evaluate it for its usefulness to organizational mission and objectives.  But the wealth of information and the inadequacy of structures for sharing, evaluating and cross referencing information hinder our ability to make good decisions.

As the pace of information dissemination has accelerated over the past fifty years, colleges and universities have turned out more specialized workers, as though each would become expert in a small area of applied knowledge.  But more than ever before, business and government need managers who are generalists, who can synthesize knowledge from a myriad of sources and who negotiate comfortably the complex environments in which they operate.

These generalist managers are the ones who will inspire employees and will guide business and government in an increasingly complex environment.  Organizations invest wisely in opportunities that broaden the horizons, challenge the values and enhance the critical thinking of their managers.